New Mexico
Driving on back highways through the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico was a pleasant surprise for both of us. With a mix of forested uplands still quite green from the summer rains and desert lowlands with the classic rock pillars jutting out everywhere, we decided the area was one of the most beautiful places we’ve driven through (yes, we know, we will say this a lot). We left the Crownholm’s hospitality in Show Low Arizona and headed through the White and Mogollon Mountains to the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Our destination: the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The drive to the dwellings is over 40 miles of twisting mountain road from the nearest town of any size. It was refreshing to be out of California and it’s overcrowded campgrounds and closed forest service roads. We decided to camp for the night and get to the dwellings bright and early in the morning. The area is beautiful and there are many undeveloped campgrounds, but we opted to drive offroad until we found a great spot not very far from the dwellings. Ahh… free camping in our National Forests, the way it should be.
We arrived at the cliff dwellings fairly early the next morning. The Gila Cliff Dwellings were home (or maybe not home…apparently archeologists can’t decide what the area was used for) to the Mogollon between the 1200 and 1300′s. Access to the dwellings is by a 1-mile hike from the visitor center. They are built into caverns overlooking a canyon that has a beautiful spring fed creek that runs year round. It was quite an experience to walk through the caverns and to just sit and view the archaeological remains of the dwellings. Three things that make this site particularly enjoyable is that there are very few visitors (especially early), you receive one on one attention from the knowledgeable volunteers on site and you are actually allowed to climb into the dwellings to look and feel around. One of the amazing things that stood out in our minds was the black staining on the cavern ceilings from all of the fires that the inhabitants had within the dwellings and the fact that you can still smell that telltale woodfire aroma inside of the caverns even after all this time.
As we drove out of the cliff dwellings parking area, we looked at each other and said: “Why one national monument for the day when we can enjoy two!” So, much like the Griswold’s in European Vacation we headed to White Sands National Monument to cram in another spot in one short day. Our brilliant plan was to visit White Sands and continue driving a few hundred miles past the monument to find a place to camp for the night as we made our way to Austin. Let me point out that White Sands is about three hours from the Gila Cliff Dwellings, we were leaving at about noon and we had to backtrack out through the twisting mountain roads to get going again. Needless to say, we are both still a little deluded about what we (our bodies and our truck) can accomplish in one day. We did make it to White Sands, drove around the park and even got out of the car for a “nature walk” through the dunes and some poser pics with Tie Dog.
White Sands is a very interesting place. It consists of these amazing white gypsum sand dunes that spread out across the desert floor. The park is surrounded by a U.S. military missile testing range on all sides which makes for kind of a weird feeling as far as national monuments go. There is a big sign at the visitor center informing you that the park and the entire 40 some odd mile of highway leading into the park are closed for missile testing 2 to 3 times a week for a couple hours at a time. Nevertheless, it is a very beautiful place and was well worth the stop.
Luis.. great trip you guys got going there… thanks for sharing the pics and all the places you visit..